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Eric.ed.gov – The Effects of School Reform under NCLB Waivers: Evidence from Focus Schools in Kentucky. CEPA Working Paper No. 17-05

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: Under waivers to the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act, the federal government required states to identify schools where targeted subgroups of students have the lowest achievement and to implement reforms in these “Focus Schools.” In this study, we examine the Focus School reforms in the state of Kentucky. The reforms in this state are uniquely interesting for several reasons. One is that the state developed unusually explicit guidance for Focus Schools centered on a comprehensive school-planning process. Second, the state identified Focus Schools using a “super subgroup” measure that combined traditionally low-performing subgroups into an umbrella group. This design feature may have catalyzed broader whole-school reforms and attenuated the incentives to target reform efforts narrowly. Using regression discontinuity designs, we find that these reforms led to… Continue Reading

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Eric.ed.gov – Critical Consciousness and Schooling: The Impact of the Community as a Classroom Program on Academic Indicators

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: The present study investigates the extent to which a program guided by the principles of critical pedagogy, which seeks to develop “critical consciousness,” is associated with the improved academic performance of students attending a low-performance middle-school in Buffalo, New York. The students were enrolled in an in-school academic support program called the “Community as Classroom”, which used critical project-based learning to show students how to improve neighborhood conditions. The study found that the Community as Classroom program bolstered student engagement as reflected in improved attendance, on-time-arrival at school, and reduced suspensions. Although class grades did not improve, standardized scores, particularly in Math and Science, dramatically improved for these students from the lowest scoring categories. We suspect that given increased student engagement and dramatically improved standardized test scores,… Continue Reading

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Eric.ed.gov – Outlook. Number 370

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: Council for American Private Education (CAPE) is a coalition of national associations serving private schools K-12. “Outlook” is published monthly by CAPE. This issue contains the following articles: (1) Math Scores Continue Upward Trend; Reading Remains Flat; (2) Duncan Supports Amending BRS Provisions in Senate Bill; (3) ESEA Changes Stall in Congress, Move Through Waivers; (4) Melinda Gates Recalls How Teacher Inspired Success; (5) School Crime; and (6) CAPE Notes. Link til kilde

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Eric.ed.gov – Evaluation of the Computer and Team Assisted Mathematical Acceleration (CATAMA) Lab for Urban, High-Poverty, High Minority Middle Grade Students. Final Report to the Institute of Education Sciences

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: This project entailed a three-year efficacy evaluation of the Computer and Team Assisted Mathematical Acceleration (CATAMA) Lab developed by the Center for Social Organization of Schools at Johns Hopkins University. The CATAMA Lab was proposed as an immediate and practical approach to addressing the different types of math deficits held by students at urban high-poverty schools. The Lab required only 1 teacher per school reducing staff and professional development requirements. It used multiple instructional techniques (including individualized computer instruction, direct instruction, pair and team learning, and individual instruction) to teach math concepts and skills. By taking the place of an elective it allowed students to continue with their on-grade math class. For a more detailed description of the Lab see Appendix 2. The original goal of the… Continue Reading

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Eric.ed.gov – Title I Schools: The Student-Based Impact of Online, On-Demand Professional Development on Educators

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: Title I students remain among the most challenging population for achieving significant gains in academic performance and standardized test scores. This multi-state, quasi-experimental, pre-versus-post study reflects the comparative Title I gains for math and reading scores for teachers participating in an online, on-demand professional development program school-wide versus non-participating Title I in their respective districts as benchmarks. Average Title I gains in reading were 4.8% (p<0.001) versus 0.1% (ns) in the non-participating Title I schools. For math scores, non-participating Title I schools in the districts saw a decline of 5.9% (p<0.001), while Title I schools participating in the professional development experienced a gain of 7.3% (p<0.001). Conclusions are that significant advantages for Title I students are achieved when teachers participate actively in such a high impact, high… Continue Reading

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Eric.ed.gov – Teacher Effectiveness: The Conditions that Matter Most and a Look to the Future

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: Over the last decade, policy and business leaders have come to know what parents have always known: teachers make the greatest difference to student achievement. With new statistical and analytical methods used by a wide range of researchers, evidence has been mounting that teacher quality can account for a large share of variance in student test scores. The evidence on the distribution of qualified and effective teachers is also clear–and the findings are not good. Teachers who have met the demanding standards of National Board Certification and those who have generated higher “value-added” student achievement gains are far less likely to teach economically disadvantaged and minority students. As a result, high-poverty schools are more likely to be beset with teaching vacancies in math and special education, and… Continue Reading

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Eric.ed.gov – An Analysis of the Use and Validity of Test-Based Teacher Evaluations Reported by the “Los Angeles Times”: 2011

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: In May of 2011, the “Los Angeles Times” published, for the second time, results of statistical studies examining the variation in teacher and school performance in the Los Angeles Unified School District, based on the California Standards Tests for math and English Language Arts (ELA). The studies use data from the seven academic years ending in 2009-2010. The “Times” published teachers’ names along with their effect estimates. These estimates were then used to classify teachers into five categories: least effective; less effective; average; more effective; and most effective. The “Los Angeles Times” previously published the results of statistical analyses designed to address the same issues in August, 2010, using data from the period 2003-2009. The earlier analyses were reviewed by Briggs and Domingue, who identified several serious… Continue Reading

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Eric.ed.gov – Teacher Preparation and Student Achievement. Working Paper 20

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: There are fierce debates over the best way to prepare teachers. Some argue that easing entry into teaching is necessary to attract strong candidates, while others argue that investing in high quality teacher preparation is the most promising approach. Most agree, however, that we lack a strong research basis for understanding how to prepare teachers. This paper is one of the first to estimate the effects of features of teachers’ preparation on teachers’ value-added to student test score performance in Math and English Language Arts. Our results indicate variation across preparation programs in the average effectiveness of the teachers they are supplying to New York City schools. In particular, preparation directly linked to practice appears to benefit teachers in their first year. Sample Results for Math with… Continue Reading

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Eric.ed.gov – Transfer Incentives for High-Performing Teachers: Final Results from a Multisite Randomized Experiment. NCEE 2014-4003

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: One way to improve struggling schools’ access to effective teachers is to use selective transfer incentives. Such incentives offer bonuses for the highest-performing teachers to move into schools serving the most disadvantaged students. In this report, we provide evidence from a randomized experiment that tested whether such a policy intervention can improve student test scores and other outcomes in low-achieving schools. The intervention, known to participants as the Talent Transfer Initiative (TTI), was implemented in 10 school districts in seven states. The highest-performing teachers in each district–those who ranked in roughly the top 20 percent within their subject and grade span in terms of raising student achievement year after year (an approach known as value added)–were identified. These teachers were offered $20,000, paid in installments over a… Continue Reading

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Eric.ed.gov – Using Alternative Student Growth Measures for Evaluating Teacher Performance: What the Literature Says. REL 2013-002

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: States are increasingly interested in including measures of student achievement growth, or “value- added,” in evaluating teachers. Annual state assessments, however, which are the typical measure of student growth, usually cover only reading and math teachers and only in grades 4-8. These state assessments thus cannot generally be used to measure contributions to student achievement growth for early elementary school teachers, most high school teachers, and teachers of other subjects. As a consequence, a growing number of states and school districts are exploring alternatives for measuring teachers’ contributions to student learning. These alternatives have the potential to be used for evaluating not only teachers who work in grades and subjects outside the annual state testing regime but also as complementary growth measures for teachers of tested grades… Continue Reading